Mirage

I just posted my 1982 Atari pencils collection in the General forum: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=122390

Thought I'd share my Atari pencils collection from 1982. I've had them since new. Anyone else have any of these, or remember them? Sorry, it's kinda hard to take a pic of round pencils! The artwork is pretty neat. I'd say they were Atari 2600 pencils as there's a couple 2600-only games in there, but then there's also Tempest. Unless this was when they were planning to release Tempest for the 2600? Anyway, pencils are, in order, top to bottom: Super Breakout Yars' Revenge Centipede Warlords Haunted House Asteroids Battlezone Star Raiders Missile Command Tempest

Well, what other games do you want? Are you going to be a player or are you going to try to collect every first-party cart, or every 2600 cart possible? There's 10's of different kinds of collectors. You need to decide what interests you, how much space you have, and how much cash you have to put into it. Maybe you just want to try various games on emulators and only purchase the ones you really like to play? That's probably the best way to keep your collection under control, but you may not find that to be as much fun if you collect just to collect. The short answer is, only one person can truly answer your question, and that's yourself! EDIT: You've started with some very fun games though... so, it's a good start in that sense!

I've been thinking the same thing. Just when I have my collection fleshed out to the point where I'm interested in such things, the pirates seem to be going for more. (and more than I'm going to pay). Oh well. Just have to watch for the deals I guess. I'm just interested in one sample from each major pirate style/company, not the whole collection. That'd be a way to keep it somewhat under control.

Holodeck?

Many people may not be able to tell the difference, but anyone who has experience in the print industry will be able to tell an original from a fake -- at least in almost all cases. Granted, some may be very good, but the printing style (not quality, just printing style through a loupe) is going to look different, and the box construction as well. If you're ever unsure, try to find someone local with print experience to look at the box and 99% of the time, they'll be able to tell, if they're good.

I think it's a great game. It seems a bit harder than RR1, but maybe that's just me. I like how you can fly over the land just because that's more realistic. If I could only have one or the other, it'd be RR1 though.

I was another winner! It's been a tough month, having become unemployed and prepping to move halfway back across the country again. It all turned out okay now though. So, right in the middle of it all, hearing I had won was pretty cool! I haven't opened the Flashback 2 yet. I want to read about any possible mods, then decide whether to do something like that, or just leave it stock, but it's very awesome either way. Thanks Al!

Awesome, #183! I almost didn't order because of layoffs that I narrowly escaped, and now I actually am laid off too! I'm glad I ordered so now I have something to do during my long days off (besides looking for a job of course!)

Well, it's not exactly your last chance... there's plenty more 2600's out there, and you could probably get one for even less than a Stelladapter! I want to get one too though, if the store ever has them again.

Can your wives/girlfriends have a talk with my wife please? kthxbye.

Their rule, I believe, is that the seller must ship/deliver the item immediately. Then, the buyer leaves feedback, then after the 21 days, if there are no chargebacks/complaints, etc, then the cash is released to the seller via PayPal. That's where the issue is for a lot of sellers. A buyer could receive an item, leave neg feedback (even for no reason), and the seller then may not get their money. I sold (and bought) on ebay quite a bit over the years. There's problem buyers and problem sellers. It's very rampant. Being careful will help to avoid most of them, but not all. Their rules needed to be revised, but I don't think the way they've done it this time is the best they could have done.

Well, that's not really the whole story. I'm not going to go into the whole thing here, because it's really not the place. But if you're interested in hearing the whole story, and all the reasons it's a bad thing, a good place to start would be that link I gave a few posts back. There are plenty of deadbeat buyers out there that deserve negative feedback to warn other sellers, and that's only one reason. I'm not even saying that their feedback system didn't need some tweaking, but the way they did it wasn't right. Anyway, there's plenty of info and opinions out there if you're interested. I'm 100% done with ebay in any case though. They're not getting any of my money again. You should also look into the new PayPal (owned by eBay) changes too. That's a big part of the issue as well.

++ Absolutely. If this can be done, it would be the best way.

The past few years, both in Wisconsin and Virginia, I occasionally see NES carts or DC discs. Tons of PS1 discs. The last time I saw a 2600 cart in a thrift was about 2 years ago in Wisconsin... Oconomowoc, specifically. They had 5 or 6 semi-commons, unpriced. I didn't need them, but was so excited to see them that I took them to the counter and asked how much they were. The girl (probably around 20 years old), said "Oh, I guess about 25 cents. Those things must be really really old." So, I bought them and was happy to get them to pass on to new collectors (which I did). Since then, I've only seen 2600 carts at indoor flea markets, overpriced. I'm checking out a new local one this weekend. Though, they're advertising as "vintage games, $5 and up", and sell everything from 2600 through PS2. Maybe they won't look up the 2600 stuff and will have some marked at $5 that are worth more. I'm not holding my breath though. EDIT: Not saying there aren't games out there in the thrifts, ever... just that I'm not seeing them. Someone is maybe beating me to them! EDIT 2: A couple hours of quickly hitting a lot of the local thrifts -- nothing. The place in the flea market did have about 20 common 2600 games (20; as in Combat, Combat, Combat, Asteroids, Asteroids, Pac Man, Pac Man...). Poor condition, but at least they were "only" .50 cents each. Lots of NES for $4-$10 (a few at $20, inexplicably one of them was Mario/Duck Hunt for $20.) About 10 boxed Intellivision (commons). That's about it. Bought nothing.

I don't know that the new feedback rules are a good thing. (In my opinion, they're not). Check out this list of 100's of angry comments from ebay members (mostly sellers), most all of them saying they're finding venues different than ebay: http://fsbfeatures.blogs.fsb.cnn.com/2008/...ller-rebellion/ I used to sell and buy a lot on ebay. Since about 1998. It was great. I made enough money selling on there that I took a two week trip to England, totally paid for by ebay sales. Bought some other stuff too. This was around 2000. Never had much of a problem with buyers, or sellers for that matter. About a month ago, I sold a bunch of stuff (non-game-related) on ebay. What a bunch of deadbeats. 20% of the listings were no-pays (oh, one of them I'm still getting "I'll send payment soooooooooooon" emails from... suuuure ya will. uh-huh. But several others... nothing. Just. Nothing. I've never had that before. So, it's not just buyers getting the shaft on ebay, it's sellers, too. The whole place has gone downhill, from being once fantastic. Fortunately, there's other up-and-coming sites that show promise. Me, I'll deal with private sites/collectors from now on. I've never had any significant problem with those.

Riiiiight... likely story. See their new feedback rules starting in March? Thank goodness I'd already written off ebay altogether, or that would push me to do it. eBay -- going down in flames.

Well, I haven't been here as a registered member (with this registration anyway, I can't even remember my old one), but I've been collecting and visiting here forever. And I wouldn't mind contributing something or other, eventually, once there is a framework in place. If nothing else, I could contribute Flash programming or DVD interface programming down the line -- but we're ages away from that at this time. Maybe the "how to clean" could be done in a creative way... like an archaeological dig, finding an old dirty cart and reviving it or something like that. Then, it would have a more broad appeal, entertainment-wise, with informational use as well. I can see that appealing to a general audience (but I envision it to still be an 'extra feature').

Well.... what I meant about intended audience is that I think before you plan what's in it, or make it, you should know what the intended audience is, because the content of the movie will be quite different. What is going to interest people here is going to be very different from what interests people not already interested in Atari. One minor obvious example. Someone mentioned maybe having a "how to clean cartridges" bonus. Okay. There would be no better way to bore or turn off non-Atari enthusiasts. So, if your intended audience is non-Atari-enthusiasts, that should be not part of this. The same type of decisions would be made for most other sections. Also, the way each person attacks their story would be totally different. So, I don't think it makes sense to just make the movie in any given way, then start here, then move outward. You need to decide: Is this for current AtariAgers? If so, make that movie. If it's for non-AtariAgers, then make that movie. Totally different movies. Maybe even make two separate movies? If not, then one or the other, not one movie intended for both.

This is a fantastic idea, and I hope it sees the light of day, in whatever form. I realize this is just at the "seed of an idea" stage, but reading the above comments, the one thing that really stands out to me is that the intended audience really needs to be decided before much else can be done. Every other decision would be made differently depending on if this is just something for the community, or something intended for a general non-Atari audience. The resulting movie would be completely different depending on which audience is chosen. Either way, please don't let the momentum die out on this!

In what area are you going for a doctorate and how does the history of video games fit in?

We'll have the olympics twice a year, hope to see you in the second one! Here's a preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bv2xZDktAY Not totally sure when I'll be back in WI, but whenever I end up there, you'll be able to count me in!

Damn you got good eyes! That is a real Atari 2600 Centipede store display box and I know they also had one for Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was hoping you weren't going to say it's an official item, because now I really want one! Very very cool though. Nice stuff.

Red Eye? BTW, I haven't played it for years, but my friends and I really enjoyed Porky's back in the day. I remember playing that a lot before school after we were worn out by Decathlon. It seemed like one of the most challenging games any of us had at the time. I think most movie games on the 2600 are pretty good.

That is one huge Centipede box in the background... what is that? A promotional display, or something someone made recently? I've never seen anything like that.